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Wildberries (the biggest Russian market place of garments, footwear, electronics, children's goods, goods for households, etc. founded in 2004) has launched the production of smart TVs under its own brand (STM) RAZZ in order to exclusively sell them on the marketplace, a representative of the company told Vedomosti. Depending on the technical characteristics, the cost of the devices will vary from 7,500 to 40,000 rubles, he said. The representative of Wildberries did not disclose the volume of TVs planned for release, as well as the amount of investment in the project.

The fact that Wildberries will launch its own brand of electronics and household appliances, Vedomosti wrote at the end of March. In addition to televisions, the company sells refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and blenders, and also plans to sell wearable gadgets – tablets, laptops, and smartphones.

The assembly of RAZZ smart TVs will be carried out in Russia at the Kvant factories in the Moscow and Voronezh regions, but part of the component base will be purchased in China, the representative of the marketplace said. Smart Ozon TVs under the Hartens brand are already being made at Kvant's facilities. In addition, Kvant cooperates with Yandex, releasing motherboards for smart TVs with the company's software. 

According to Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics, the volume of Wildberries' investments in the launch of the project is unlikely to exceed "several tens of millions of rubles." This amount includes the development of the brand, the formation of the terms of reference, the choice of a supplier, and so on.

The main competitors of Wildberries in the smart TV market are Chinese brands more familiar to customers (Xiaomi, TCL, Hisense, Viomi) and STM (own trademarks) of other retail chains, said Stanislav Soltitsky, Deputy Director for Strategic Development of F+ tech–Marvel Group. "The ruble exchange rate is a very important factor now," he said. "Brands that have stocks formed at the old exchange rate will have a serious advantage over those who will offer goods after the ruble has weakened."

STM (Own Brand of the marketplace) feels confident in the smart TV market because by reducing costs they offer prices lower than those of major Chinese brands, the editor-in-chief of the portal Ferra.ru Evgeny Kharitonov noted. Moreover, some Chinese manufacturers, such as Xiaomi, have reduced their presence in Russia in this class of devices to a minimum, he added.

Ozon and Yandex. Marketplaces also announced their intention to develop electronics sales under STM in 2022. For the release of televisions in the fall of 2021, Ozon bought the Hartens brand. Audio equipment, embedded large household appliances, small household appliances, and accessories are also sold under this brand. Yandex. The market sells household appliances and electronics under the Tuvio brand. The list of products under this STM includes televisions, kettles, freezers, microwaves, and washing machines. Sber launched TVs under its own Sber brand in March 2022. These devices are equipped with the Salyut TV operating system (OS) and a virtual assistant from Sber.

In May, Vedomosti wrote that sales of smart TVs with Russian operating systems tripled over the year. In the first quarter of 2022, about 87,000 devices with Yandex and Sber voice assistants installed were sold, and in the first quarter of 2023 – already 300,000. In general, 2 million televisions were sold on the Russian market in the first quarter of 2023, which is 15% more than in the previous year, and the share of smart TVs increased from 5 to 15% year-on-year.

In total, Wildberries will release seven models of smart TVs with a diagonal from 24 to 65 inches and a resolution of up to 4K. The smart shell for RAZZ TVs was developed by VK, a representative of the marketplace said. He added that these are the first smart TVs on the market with a built-in voice assistant "Marusya" from VK and the RuStore application store, which is also being developed by the holding with the support of the Ministry of Digital Affairs. In addition, as follows from the product cards on the marketplace, some of the RAZZ models are produced with a voice assistant "Salute" from "Sber".

A VK representative told Vedomosti that the terms of cooperation with partners were not disclosed, but clarified that the company has plans for further integration of Marusia into smart TVs. Voice control of smart TVs via VK smart speakers also works on LG models released in 2016 and above, as well as on Samsung models released in 2017 and later, a message on the company's website said in early July.

The VK representative also said that in the near future, all developers will have the opportunity to publish applications for TV in the RuStore. Through it, users can access streaming services, TV channel applications, games, etc., he added, without specifying exactly how many applications are available in the store. 

Experts expect an increase in prices for equipment due to the rise in the cost of components and the fall of the ruble

The marketplace was actively involved in the sale of electronics and began to develop STM, said Alexander Surkov, head of the GS Group analytical center. At the same time, VK, unlike Yandex and Sberbank, does not have its own marketplace, and cooperation with Wildberries is definitely interesting for the company, he noted.

Wildberries itself did this for the sake of subsidies from VK in order to increase its own profit, or having decided that a trial subscription to VK services included in the price would add attractiveness to the TV, Kharitonov suggested. At the same time, VK is not among the top players in the Russian online cinema market, and VK video remains in the shadow of YouTube. The success of TVs with "Marusya" will depend on the quality of the devices and the stability of the OS, said Vladimir Puzanov, CEO of BQ.

The app Store appeared on Wildberries branded TVs not only to comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation but primarily as part of cooperation with VK, Kharitonov believes. At the same time, if the Ru Store already covers almost all the needs of Russian users on smartphones, then Google Play is still the basis of applications in smart TVs, he noted. Having a choice of applications is very important for smart TVs, Puzanov added: "Not everyone can use third-party installation files and install programs via a USB stick." The range of applications in RuStore is still limited, but it's pre-installation and built-in Russian voice assistants will help the brand to "rebuild" from a large number of Chinese brands, Burmistrov noted.

Prices for RAZZ TVs correspond to prices for similar products from Ozon, Yandex, Sberbank, etc., Surkov said. According to him, Chinese manufacturers will move to the upper price segment, and in the middle and lower, the competition of STM will become tougher. The price of 20,000 rubles for a 4K TV with a diagonal of 50 inches is the average price on the market of STM TVs, but it is worth considering that there are "plenty" of similar offers (DEXP, Erisson, Kivi, Harper, etc.), Kharitonov continued. Therefore, in order for the brand to be noticed, it will need a more significant discount at the start of sales, he believes.

THE MOST POPULAR BRANDS OF TV - SETS SOLD IN RUSSIA 

BRAND	2022	2023
SAMSUNG	17,9	5,2
LG	17,4	NA
OWN BRANDS OF MARKETPLACES	17,1	22,4
XIAOMI	6,6	8
HAIER	6,5	10,6

Source: Statistics of MVIDEO – ELDORADO (one of the biggest electronics retail chains)

Source: https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2023/07/21/986273-wildberries-vishla-na-rinok-umnih-televizorov?utm_campaign=newspaper_21_7_2023&utm_medium=email&utm_source=vedomosti